Method
Below, it’s my table of methods:
The reason why I need this table (above) is because factors like day of the week, time of the day and weather conditions may affect my results that I’ve collected.
Factors which could affect my results:
Weather- if there is a bad weather while I’m carrying out the investigation, the number of people in the shopping area will decrease. However, if the weather is good (sunny, hot) there is more possibility of more people shopping in the certain area. For each day, if the weather is similar while I’m carrying out the investigation it will bring me out fair results.
Time of the day- I tried to chose the appropriate time of the day when going to collect my data because I need to carry out the survey while the shopping area is busy. Also, if I can’t go to a constant time of visiting these shopping areas I will have time gaps in my data.
Holidays- my data was affected by holiday times. This is because people travelled shopping for holiday and the shopping area is more busy than usual as there is lots of people getting ready for holidays and coming to shop in specific shops.
...This is a preview of the whole essay
Time of the day- I tried to chose the appropriate time of the day when going to collect my data because I need to carry out the survey while the shopping area is busy. Also, if I can’t go to a constant time of visiting these shopping areas I will have time gaps in my data.
Holidays- my data was affected by holiday times. This is because people travelled shopping for holiday and the shopping area is more busy than usual as there is lots of people getting ready for holidays and coming to shop in specific shops.
Seasons- this probably affected my results. Most people visit shopping areas during summer or winter because this is the time where everything is on sales. This was an advantage because I carried out the survey due to lots of people going shopping.
Techniques I used to collect data:
Questionnaires
I used questionnaires because they are especially useful when the respondents must remain anonymous. They can be distributed and returned in ways that respondents can feel confident that their identities are secure. Gathering information by this method is also straight forward and doesn’t need much of respondent time. Questionnaire is the easiest way of analyzing the data from all other methods.
Bus Count
I used bus counts because I wanted to know how many buses pass through the shopping area. This also included cars. The method was taken down in 15 minute period. The bus count showed me how busy is specific shopping area.
People Count
I used this method because it showed me the popularity of an area and how many people pass through the area in 15 minute period. This helped me to analyse which area is the most popular and useful.
Environmental Quality Investigation
By using this investigation method I could decide whether the area is clean and tidy. I monitored the amount of chewing gums on the ground, the graffiti, availability of the toilets and more. I also used this to show the environmental quality between the shopping areas and compare the investigations.
Number of bus routes
The different bus routes showed me the different buses which were able to reach a certain destination. It also gave me the level of difficulty getting to the area. Number of bus routes can also affect the number of people who come to shop at the area, as for some is very hard to get there b having few bus routes.
Count of the shops
I counted the shops so I would know how much shops the area has. It also showed me the availability of different services available at the shopping area. The larger number of shops will probably give the larger number of people shopping there so the popularity of the area will increase.
Count the number of parking spaces
I’ve counted the number of parking spaces in order to check if there is enough space for people to park on. Especially, if it is a large shopping centre, the space for parking the cars should be large as more people will come shopping. Also, for people it will be nice to shop in the area if they provide a free car parking.
Classifying Shops
I used the method of classifying shops in order to see how many services are available in the shopping area. It also gave me an idea of what shops provide in the shopping area and what resources makes people come to particular shopping area. This method also made it easier to situate the shopping area in the shopping hierarchy.
On the next page onwards, I’ve included the Shopping Survey (questionnaire) which I used to collect the results.
I am going to explain each question and give the reason why I have inserted it in the survey.
The questionnaire includes 8 questions. I’ve decided to do 8 as I thought that more questions would take to long for respondents to fill in. The questions I used are short and clear as well as very useful when analysing the data.
For each shopping area I gave 10 questionnaires out for people shopping there to fill in. I thought 10 was a number which will give me fair results.
Shopping Survey
1. How often do you visit this shopping area?
Daily
More than once a week
Weekly
More than once a month
Just a few times each year
Never before
2. How far from this shopping area do you live?
Less than 1 mile
1 to 5 miles
5 to 10 miles
More than 10 miles
In which area of London or town/city do you live? ________________________________________
3. How did you travel to this shopping area?
Walking
By car
By train
By bus
Other
If other, please suggest how?
______________________________________
4. Why did you choose to shop at this shopping area?
Choice of shops
For a particular shop
Convenience
Easy to get to
Good car parking
Appropriate price
Quality of services provided
Other reasons
5. Did you ever have any problems with this shopping area?
Yes No
If yes, please explain?
__________________________________________________________
6. How much do you spend when you shop in this area?
0-5£
5-10£
10-15£
15-20£
20-25£
25-30£
More than 30£
7. When shopping in this area, how many stores do you typically shop?
1/2/3/4/5/6/7-8/9-10/More than 10
8. Are the shops suitable for your needs?
Yes No
